In the molding of plastic parts, it is well known to form a plurality of molded parts in a single casting operation by connecting the parts to a common runner. Such molding methods hence produce a mixture of molded parts and runners, and it is thus necessary to separate the runners from the molded parts.
Several types of machines have been designed to separate such mixtures of plastic parts and runners. One such machine uses a pair of end-to-end arranged belts which provides a slot through which a relatively small molded part can drop while larger runners are carried beyond the slot. However, this type of sorting device can only sort runners and molded parts which are considerably different in size, and is thus of limited usefulness.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,789,981 discloses a separating device which utilizes a moving belt having a plurality of fingers projecting therefrom. At one reach thereof, the belt passes upwardly at a steep angle within an enclosure and a mixture of molded parts and runners is introduced onto the belt. The molded parts fall downwardly through the fingers and are collected below, whereas the runners are caught by the fingers and carried by the belt to a separate container. This device is effective to sort a variety of molded parts and runners of different relative sizes, but is not always effective to sort such mixtures where the molded parts and runners have very similar dimensions, except that the runners are considerably longer than the molded parts.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for automatically separating molded parts from runners produced in the molding of said molded parts.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a rotary separator which can be readily adjusted to accommodate mixtures of molded parts and runners having different relative sizes.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a rotary separator which is portable and has a simple mechanical structure.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reading the following specification and the accompanying drawings.